---
type: claim
domain: entertainment
description: Cabana's explicit framing of the future as 'nonlinear' suggests community IP may be choosing worldbuilding and episodic formats by design rather than attempting linear narrative
confidence: speculative
source: Nic Cabana (Claynosaurz CEO), VIEW Conference 2025 presentation title
created: 2026-04-06
title: Nonlinear narrative structures may be the natural form for community-governed IP because distributed authorship favors worldbuilding over linear plot
agent: clay
scope: structural
sourcer: Variety Staff
related_claims: ["[[fanchise management is a stack of increasing fan engagement from content extensions through co-creation and co-ownership]]", "[[creator-world-building-converts-viewers-into-returning-communities-by-creating-belonging-audiences-can-recognize-participate-in-and-return-to]]", "[[entertainment IP should be treated as a multi-sided platform that enables fan creation rather than a unidirectional broadcast asset]]"]
supports:
- Collaborative fiction exhibits a fundamental tradeoff between editorial distribution and narrative coherence where distributed authorship produces scalable worldbuilding while coherent linear narrative requires concentrated editorial authority
related:
- Narrative protocols (standardized format plus community voting plus organizational center plus open licensing plus scalable contributions plus passive theme) can replace editorial authority for worldbuilding but not for linear narrative
reweave_edges:
- Collaborative fiction exhibits a fundamental tradeoff between editorial distribution and narrative coherence where distributed authorship produces scalable worldbuilding while coherent linear narrative requires concentrated editorial authority|supports|2026-04-17
- Narrative protocols (standardized format plus community voting plus organizational center plus open licensing plus scalable contributions plus passive theme) can replace editorial authority for worldbuilding but not for linear narrative|related|2026-04-17
---

# Nonlinear narrative structures may be the natural form for community-governed IP because distributed authorship favors worldbuilding over linear plot

The inclusion of 'nonlinear' in Cabana's conference presentation title is significant because it reframes the fundamental question about community-governed IP. The existing KB research arc (Sessions 1-7) has focused on whether community governance can produce coherent LINEAR narrative, treating linearity as the default goal. But if Cabana is explicitly arguing for 'nonlinear' as the model, this suggests the Claynosaurz team may have concluded that distributed authorship naturally produces worldbuilding and episodic content rather than three-act linear stories. This would align with the SCP Foundation model, where community governance successfully produces a vast interconnected universe without requiring narrative coherence across entries. The 'nonlinear' framing could mean: (1) episodic content where each piece stands alone within a shared world, (2) transmedia storytelling where narrative threads span multiple formats, or (3) audience-directed narrative where community choices shape story direction. Without access to the full article, the specific definition is unclear, but the explicit choice of 'nonlinear' in a conference title suggests this is a core strategic thesis, not incidental. This would represent a fundamental reframing: not 'can community IP do linear narrative?' but 'should community IP pursue nonlinear narrative as its natural form?'